‘AirFox HD’ Brings the ‘River Raid’ Experience to iPhone, iPad

When Atari’s Greatest Hits landed back in April, bringing 100 Atari arcade and VCS/2600 classics to iOS, retro gamers across the land bowed to Atari and the awesome they had brought. But still, there are plenty of great cartridge titles that aren’t part of Atari’s collections. Most notably, games by other studios. Studios like Activision, with games like River Raid. In fact, several readers specifically lamented the absence of that Activision vertical shooter, one of the best ever created for the 2600.

Tango Games just dropped us a line to make us aware of their recent release, AirFox HD [App Store], a Universal title (for iPhone and iPad) that seeks to fill the iOS River Raid void with what’s more or less an exact clone of the game.

We tried to make the exact clone of this fantastic game with its marvellous atmosphere in every possible aspect of the original game (sounds, graphics, gameplay, scoring, etc.) and added few touches here and there, like adding GameCenter for online scores.

AirFox, as the author intended, feels pretty much exactly like River Raid. The game utilizes tilt controls for navigation and speed control, with a tap to the screen to fire. It even sounds like the 2600 original.

It’s worth noting that several direct River Raid remakes have come to the App Store, like River StrikerandNext Bridge…but they have also gone. We’ll have to wait and see about AirFox HD‘s staying power. (River Raid fans might want to grab this one soon…)

UPDATE: The developers behind AirFox HD are the same folks who brought the iOS port of Activision’s Atari 2600 title Enduro [App Store], through Nemo Games.